Download utilities for ssd m2. SSD disk check: the best utilities for diagnosing and improving performance

Free utility Diagnostic-oriented SSD Life FREE is designed to monitor the condition and identify the degree of wear of all your SSD drives.

Solid-state drives, known as SSD drives, are increasingly gaining acceptance among a wide range of users. Their main advantage over the good old hard drives is their incomparable high speed, with which data is exchanged. With such hard drive personal device literally "flies". To achieve such incredible speeds, manufacturing technology uses flash memory modules, which have their own definite disadvantage, namely limited number rewrite cycles. In fact, it turns out that the happy owners of a modern device are afraid to write files to disk again and endlessly make backup copies, because premature “wear and tear” hard media He will certainly be able to put an end to his almost completed coursework or decisively “take with him” a collection of all photographs dear to his heart. In order not to constantly worry about how long your drive will last, there is a very useful program called SSD Life, which shows the most accurate service life of the disk.

The functionality of the application allows you to find out almost all the data that can be obtained about a hard drive. The program opens exclusively reliable data, such as the name of the original manufacturer, which can be useful in cases of sales Chinese fakes, and also for frugal users or those who like to buy used components, the utility will show the real “mileage” of the device, i.e. how many actual hours did it work before it came into your hands? In addition, one of the main options is the number of user calls to the device and, in fact, the time remaining until its “death”. For each user, at the bottom of the page, SSD Life is offered to download for free.

The program is managed in a few clicks. The main window immediately tells you about the state of the device - green color notifies that everything is fine, but you should pay attention to the red one, since it means a clear limitation of the remaining time of use. It must be said that the benefits using SSD Life is obvious, but still, in order to avoid irreversible data loss, it is still worth thinking about timely saving critical documents on a separate drive or using any “cloud” service that just offers several free gigabytes of free space.

Examination SSD drive using utilities represents universal method, which performs several tasks at once.

• First – checking the drive for errors.
• Second – monitoring the operational life of the device.

The presence and periodic use of such programs is not only desirable for the owner, but also necessary.

After all, the resources of these components of modern PCs and laptops are limited compared to HDDs, and the danger of data loss is higher.

Although these disadvantages are fully compensated by a significant number of advantages from using SSDs, due to the difference in their design from standard ones hard drives.

Features of using SSD drives

SSD drives are solid-state, non-volatile drives whose operating principle is similar to flash memory - SD and microSD cards, USB flash drives and other storage media.

Such devices have no moving parts, and use a DDR DRAM chip to transmit data.

Parallel recording of information simultaneously onto several memory elements and the absence of the need to move the heads that read information (typical of HDDs) allows you to increase the speed of the process several times.

And if average speed reading contemporary hard drive is about 60 MB/s, even an average SSD drive can deliver 4–5 times higher performance.

When recording data, the excess may be smaller, but the process is still much faster.

Rice. 1. Comparison of read and write speeds of SSD and HDD disks.

Loading speed is of particular importance for those computers on which several resource-intensive applications are installed.

In this case, only download Windows systems occurs within 15–20 s for a solid-state drive and from 30 to 60 s for a hard drive.

The same speed improvement occurs in the process of launching programs and recording data.

Other advantages of using SSD drives (read more) include:

• resistance to shocks and falls. A parameter important for laptops hard disks in which they often fail precisely because mechanical damage;
• compactness - many disks are not much larger than the battery in size mobile phone, others have the dimensions of a memory stick;
• extended temperature range of disk operation;
• minimal energy consumption and no noise during operation.

Rice. 2. Comparison of HDD sizes, standard SSD and mSATA drive.

However, the operation of SSDs also comes with certain disadvantages. These include the relatively high cost of the drive, although as the capacity increases, the price-to-volume ratio becomes smaller.

The second important disadvantage is limited resource SSD drives, which is why it is recommended to check them periodically.

Setting up an SSD under Windows 10: Complete step-by-step instructions

Drive diagnostics

the main task SSD disk checks consist of diagnosing its condition and providing information about the presence of errors, resource and expected operational life.

This allows the user to know in advance about future problems with the drive, leading to unpredictable loss of information.

In addition, based on the results of the check, you can plan financial expenses for a purchase, the cost of which may not allow you to quickly find such an amount if the problem arose unexpectedly.

In addition, checking the drive does not take much time and does not even require the purchase of an expensive software.

Utilities can be downloaded online for free or purchased for an amount not exceeding the cost of a standard antivirus program.

While it is impossible to recover lost information from SSDs, unlike hard drives.

The best utilities for checking SSD drives

To check the status of the hard drive, drive manufacturers and third party developers Dozens of applications have already been released.

Most of them are free or shareware, that is, requiring payment only some time after the start of use.

Their effectiveness is almost the same, but the differences lie in ease of use and functionality.

SSD Life

SSD Ready

When checking the status of an SSD drive, you can use the SSDReady application, which only works with solid-state drives. The result of the check is an estimate of the expected operating time of the device based on the collected statistics on writing and reading data. The program works in background and requires virtually no resources.

Rice. 6. SSDReady application.

Hard Disk Sentinel

A special feature of the Hard Disk Sentinel application, designed to monitor hard drives, is to monitor performance degradation or exceeding permissible level temperatures and a message about this to the user. The application constantly checks the speed of information transfer, temperature regime and other parameters. Among its features:

• work with SSD drives, IDE and SATA drives, and even USB drives;
• displaying information about the current and minimum temperature;
• indication of the number of errors and disk operating hours in hours;
• indication of not only the current, but also the maximum possible information transfer mode for the disk.

Rice. 7. Working with the program Hard Disk Sentinel.

HDDScan

The freely available HDDScan program allows you to diagnose hard drives of any type, check them for errors and monitor the “health” of the drives. The utility works in real time and, if necessary, displays a detailed report on the status of the disk, which can be saved for further use.

Rice. 8. HDDScan program report.

SSD Tweaker

Free app SSD Tweaker is easy to operate and allows the user to do more than just control the state solid state drives, but also disable unnecessary operations in the operating system that reduce the service life of the disk. For example, such as indexing service and Windows defragmentation. Settings can be configured manually or automatically.

Rice. 9. Working window of the SSD Tweaker program.

HD Tune

The HD Tune application is available in several versions - a free version and a paid HD Tune Pro. The first provides testing of the status of hard drives (including SSDs) and memory cards. The shareware utility, for which you will have to pay $38, has advanced functionality, allowing you to control almost all disk parameters and carry out a number of additional tests.

Rice. 10. Diagnostics using HD Tune Pro.

Regardless of the program you choose to diagnose your SSD drive, at least one of them must be installed on your computer (or run from time to time if it is impossible to install on a working PC).

At the same time, if too important information is not contained on the drive, the frequency of checking can be changed by setting, for example, diagnostics not every 4 hours, but once a day. Moreover, despite the higher level of reliability HDDs, using most of the same applications, you can periodically monitor their status, increasing the security of data storage.

Solid state hard drives have become a real innovation in the world computer technology. Speed SSD operation There are many times more disks than the average hard drive (HDD).

Consequently, a large number of personal computers and laptops began to be released complete with new drives, and users often resort to replacing the old type of drive with a new one.

Unfortunately, standard features operating system Windows does not give the opportunity to produce fine tuning and optimization of SSD drives. A large amount of software has been created specifically for these tasks. Among them, it is especially popular free program SSD Tweaker.

You can download SSD Tweaker for free from our website. It is available in the form of a kind of manager that has a simple and intuitive interface. Using the program, even not the most advanced users can flexibly configure an SSD disk for their OS, which is undoubtedly a plus in its piggy bank.

Using the power of SSD Tweaker, you can centrally configure your drive in just a few simple steps. All actions will be carried out semi-automatically with minimal participation from you.

So, after a few simple operations, SSD Tweaker will configure the mechanism Windows indexing, system service defragmentation, will correct the area system cache and will adjust all file system parameters.

Optimal use of hard drive memory can be achieved using the special Superfetch technology, which is available in the program's arsenal. Also, you can find special tools with which you can manage file swap settings. The DIMP system will help you monitor the power consumption status of the device.

Unlike other programs for configuring and optimizing the operation of solid-state drives, the utility can be used completely free of charge. In addition, the program interface can be presented in Russian.

The advent of solid-state hard drives, or SSD for short, can certainly be considered a breakthrough in the development of technologies for creating devices for recording and storing digital information. The first SSDs to hit the market, with the exception of high speed access to arbitrary blocks of information, were in many ways inferior to traditional HDDs. Not only could their volumes, without exaggeration, be called more than modest, they also had low fault tolerance and cost a lot of money.

What's wrong with SSDs?

The high speed, quietness and low power consumption of solid state drives have served good drivers for their development. Modern SSD drives are lightweight, very fast and quite reliable from a mechanical point of view, devices used in tablets, ultrabooks and other compact devices. The price of SSDs has also dropped significantly. But still, they cannot be called perfect. All SSDs have a significant drawback - a limited number of rewrite cycles.

The flash memory of most SSDs is MLC type and allows you to write data approximately 3 to 10 thousand times, while regular USB They exhaust their service life in 1000 or less rewrite cycles. There are also SSDs, for example, with SLC memory type, which can withstand several hundred thousand rewrite cycles. There are many nuances, so it is not surprising that it is precisely this feature of SSD drives that raises a lot of questions among ordinary users regarding their operation, and most importantly, extending their service life. Is SSD optimization necessary in Windows 7/10 or is it just another myth, created by the manufacturers and developers of commercial software themselves?

Basic training

Yes, you can leave everything as is on a PC with an SSD, and you might be right, but if you really care about your drive and want it to last as long as possible, it's worth considering customizing it. Let's start with whether you bought a computer with an integrated SSD or just the drive itself, which you want to replace the HDD with, transferring Windows from it. In the first case, you can limit yourself to setting up the system. If you install the SSD yourself, be sure to check whether it is included in BIOS mode AHCI connections for SATA controller.

There are two points here: after AHCI enable And Windows migration on SSD system may not boot because it does not have the appropriate drivers. Therefore, either install the drivers ahead of time, or run reinstalling Windows from scratch. Second. Old PCs may not be in the BIOS AHCI mode. In this case, the BIOS will have to be updated. Now regarding the firmware of the SSD controller. Owners of solid-state drives often ask whether the drive will work faster if you install latest version firmware. Yes, it will, but if you decide to update it and in general, if the need arises, it is better to contact the service center for help.

System settings. Disabling defragmentation

Defragmentation is a useful thing for HDDs, but it can harm SSD drives, so Windows usually automatically disables it. However, it's worth checking to see if it's actually disabled. Run with the command dfrgui Disk Optimization Utility and click Change Settings.

Make sure the “Run on a schedule” checkbox is unchecked. If it is there, be sure to remove it.

Enabling TRIM

The TRIM mechanism optimizes the SSD drive by clearing memory cells of unnecessary data when removing them from the disk. Using TRIM ensures uniform wear of the disk cells and increases its speed. To check if TRIM is active on your system, run as administrator command line team fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify.

If the value of the returned parameter DisableDeleteNotify will be 0, it means everything is in order and the trim function is enabled, if 1 it means it is disabled and should be enabled with the command fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0.

This SSD setup is only applicable to Windows 7/10, while Vista and XP do not support it. Option two: either install more new system, or look for an SSD with hardware TRIM. Please also note that some older models of solid-state drives do not support TRIM at all, however, it is likely that they are still sold in stores digital technology very small.

In the process in the hiberfil.sys file on system disk a significant amount of data can be recorded, comparable to the volume random access memory. To extend the service life of the SSD, we need to reduce the number of write cycles, so it is advisable to disable hibernation. The downside is this SSD settings is that you will no longer be able to save open files and programs when the computer is turned off. To disable hibernation, run the command running with administrator privileges powercfg -h off.

Restart your computer and make sure that hidden system file hiberfil.sys has been removed from the C drive.

Disable file search and indexing

What else can be done to properly configure an SSD drive for Windows 7/10? The answer is to disable indexing of the disk contents, because the SSD is already fast enough. Open the disk properties and uncheck “Allow file contents to be indexed...”.

But here's the thing. If in addition to an SSD you have a HDD, then you are unlikely to want to disable indexing on it. What will come of this? By default, the index file is located on drive C and data from drive D will still be written to the solid-state drive.

If you do not want to disable indexing on the user volume, you will need to move the indexing file from the system SSD to the user HDD. Open with command control /name Microsoft.IndexingOptions indexing options.

Now click “Advanced” and specify your index location, having first created a folder on the user disk.

If your PC only has an SSD, you can completely disable indexing and search by opening the service management snap-in with the services.msc command and stopping the Windows Search service.

Disabling system protection

Controversial point. By disabling the creation of system shadow copies, on the one hand, you will reduce the number of write cycles, on the other hand, you will increase the risk of getting a non-working system in the event of some unexpected failure. The use of retractables is one of the most effective and simple ways return Windows to working condition, for this reason we would not recommend disabling this function, especially since points are created infrequently and do not take up so much space.

We do not recommend disabling system protection for your Intel SSD, Microsoft shares the same opinion. However, it's up to you to decide. If you are using other means Reserve copy, For example, Acronis True Image, system protection can be disabled. To do this, go to system properties, on the “System Protection” tab, select the SSD drive and click “Configure”. Next, in the recovery options, activate the “Disable system protection” radio button, move the slider to zero and click the “Delete” button.

Should I disable the page file or not?

An even more controversial solution is to disable the page file. Some people advise moving it to the HDD, others completely disabling it, but it’s not that simple. The paging file is necessary to optimize the performance of the system and programs that require significant RAM resources. Disabling paging can indeed reduce disk load, but the resulting effect will be very small. In addition, this shutdown can significantly reduce the performance of the computer.

There is little point in moving the swap file to hard disk drive no, either, since it is many times slower than an SSD, and constant access to it by the system will slow down its operation. Disabling, or better yet, reducing the paging file is only permissible in one case - if your computer has more than 10 GB of RAM, and you do not use resource-intensive applications. And so, of course, it’s better to leave everything by default. You can perform all manipulations with the paging file in the performance parameters window, called up in the “Run” window with the command systempropertiesperformance(hereinafter Advanced – Change).

Prefetch and Superfetch

In theory, it’s also better to leave everything here as default. The function does not affect the durability of solid-state drives in any way, since it does not produce any records. Moreover, when Windows installation on SSD, the system automatically disables it. Want to make sure it's disabled? Go to Registry Editor at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/Session Manager/Memory Management/PrefetchParameters and look at the parameter value EnableSuperfetch. It should be set to 0. You can also disable it through the service management snap-in.

As for Prefetch, the disk writes it produces are so insignificant that it can be ignored. However, you can turn it off, nothing bad will happen. To do this, in the same registry key, set the value of the parameter EnablePrefetcher 0.

The same can be said about disconnecting additional function Prefetch ReadyBoot, logged application loading process. The volume of records it produces in the folder C:/Windows/Prefetch/ReadyBoot is negligible, but if you want to disable them too, set the Start parameter in the key to 0 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/WMI/Autologger/ReadyBoot.

Programs for optimizing SSD disks

Almost everything that was shown in the examples above can be done using special utilities. How to set up an SSD under Windows 7/10 using third party programs? Very simple. Most of them have an intuitive clear interface, represented by a set of options that can be enabled or disabled. There are many SSD optimizers, but we will focus only on the most popular ones.

SSD Mini Tweaker

The most convenient portable program for optimizing solid-state drives. The utility supports work with the functions of defragmentation, hibernation and system protection, Trim, Superfetch and Prefetcher, management of the paging file and Layout.ini, indexing, file system cache and some other settings.

The SSD Mini Tweaker interface is represented by a window with a list of functions available for management. After applying the new settings, you may need to restart your PC.

A shareware utility for optimizing and tuning the performance of an SSD drive. There is no Russian language in Tweak-SSD, but there is a convenient one step by step wizard, offering optimal settings. Features of this program include disabling file indexing, Program Compatibility Assistant, hibernation, paging file, defragmentation, time recording last access to a file, working with TRIM, increasing the file system cache, removing the NTFS limit on memory use, and moving the kernel into memory instead of unloading some modules to disk.

SSD Fresh Plus

Another SSD optimizer. Unlike analogues, it supports working with S.M.A.R.T. data. With Abelssoft SSD Fresh Plus you can disable defragmentation, the use of short names for folders and files, timestamps, Windows log,Prefetching services.

In total, the utility supports nine different settings, optimizing the operation of SSDs. Additional features programs include viewing detailed information about the disk. Distributed in paid and free editions.

Conclusion

That's probably all. There are also other recommendations for optimizing SSDs, but for the most part they are either dubious or harmful. In particular, it is not recommended to disable record caching for the SSD disk and USN file journal NTFS systems. It should also not be transferred from SSD programs and temporary Temp folders, browser cache and so on, because then what’s the point in buying an SSD drive? We need programs to run faster, but transferring them to the HDD will only slow down the system.

And finally, here's to you good advice. Don't bother too much with SSD optimization. To develop even a budget resource solid state drive 128 GB, you will need at least a dozen years, unless you write and delete terabytes of data every day. And during this time, not only the disk model, but also the computer itself will become hopelessly outdated.

SSD is a storage (recording) device whose operation is based on various microcircuits and a controller. Such devices are widely used in many modern devices: laptops, smartphones, tablets and so on. What is it? Improved hard drive! When many people hear the term SSD, they imagine something complicated. However, this is just a recording device, which is present, as already mentioned, in many devices.

What is the difference between an SSD and a hard drive?

If it is a recording device, then why are hard drives needed and what is the difference between them? The main difference is the operating principle. HDD based on magnetic disks(plates), from which constant reading and writing occurs by reversing the magnetization of the cells. SSD, on the other hand, operates on microcircuits and is an oversized flash card.

SSD drives have many advantages, in particular: high speed, low level noise, light weight. There are also disadvantages, such as: high cost, inability to recover lost data.

One way or another, SSD drives have become firmly entrenched in our lives. When working with them, there is often a need for diagnostics, testing, and optimization. For this there are special programs. Let's look at them in more detail.

Programs for setting up and optimizing ssd

SSD Mini Tweaker

Let's start with something simple and easy. This program designed for fast and efficient setup your SSD drive. It has a simple interface and takes up very little space on your computer (about 3 MB).

After starting the program, one single window appears in front of us:

In it we can choose various parameters, the implementation of which is quite difficult. We tick the boxes that we need and click “Apply changes”. That's all, nothing more is needed. Not bad for a program that takes up so little space.

SSD Life

Also very light and accessible program for working with SSD. It diagnoses the selected disk, displaying the percentage of its health:

The amount of memory that has been written and read over the entire time is available for viewing. The results can be saved, although this is not very useful. Much more required function: automatic check every 4 hours. If the status has changed since the previous check, the program will let you know.

SSD Fresh

Enough major program with rich functionality. After installation you will be asked to register free version. To do this, just enter your data:

After launching the program, we see a main window with three tabs: overview, optimization and settings.

The overview tab presents general information: volume, free and busy place, file system. Of course, it is possible to view S.M.A.R.T data. For those who are not in the know: smart is a special technology for assessing the performance of a hard drive. It is a set of fields and values.

But main function SSD Fresh - disk optimization. Here it is implemented with the highest quality and user convenience:

In each optimization section, the status is clearly presented and there are only two buttons: Optimize and Restore from backup copy. After clicking on the first one, optimization is performed automatically. You can also optimize all parameters by clicking on the button in the upper right corner.

Tweak SSD

A program as easy to use as SSD Life. If the latter's task is to diagnose the device, then Tweak SSD optimizes the disk's performance after pressing one single button.

We reviewed the main programs for diagnostics and optimization SSD drives. Undoubtedly, drives of this type will not lose their relevance for a very long time due to the speed of operation and the absence of unnecessary noise.